Post #756671 by danlovestikis on Fri, Jan 1, 2016 9:02 AM

Atomic Tiki Punk thank you for reminding me to post them. Your photo was the best!

hang10tiki Happy New Year to you and to all my Tiki Central friends. Did you go to the strip last night?

=======================

I wasn't going to start Wish List #6 until the end of December. It's so much fun that I have finished firing the entire Wish List that also includes 30 Hot Tub Hula Girls. Now I will be glazing everything in the new year along with starting the Sacramento Crawl mug and doing a painting for Tiki Oasis 16. This will be a great year of fun for me and I hope you all come along for the show.

Let's get caught up first.

So during this time off we not only went to Mexico we continued to work on the Wish List.

Here I'm sanding one of the Tiki Modern mugs.

After breaking the first Gilligan's Island mug I'm moving slower and more thoughtfully.

I have many mugs that have fragile

arms and other add-ons.

Here I've sanded the mug for the February Swap 2016.

Here's an over-view of my work area.

It around 50 degrees in the garage. I took a couple of days to do the sanding. When my hands froze I took breaks to warm them up. I'm lucky to live in California. I use a pad to protect the edges from chipping and mesh "sandpaper" because it lasts a very long time. It's a good investment.

Every time I finished a tray full I moved them to Dan's man cave.

I saved the hardest to do until the last.

I wanted to make sure I went very slowly with these hard to make pieces.

One by one I worked on them for several days.

The hat fit just right. Now I carved to make room for the glaze that will be added to the surface.

When I got near the end Dan set up to air compress off the dust. I trust him with all the pieces.

Each time he cleans one he loads it into the kiln to prevent the dust from getting back on the surface.

I've taken and posted a lot of photos so you can locate your own mug.

I also like to document why ceramics take a long time to produce. There are many steps.

Now it's time to get back to sanding the hardest pieces.

I used a wire brush to add some texture.

The kiln is slowly filling as Dan dusts.

Another dusting photo.

Those arms are so at risk. This is scary!

Now the bottom of the kiln is loaded to the maximum capacity.

More dusting.

Yes I am there too. I bought a pillow at Macy's and now I'm using the bag to limit the dust on my clothes. Whatever we wear when we work goes right into the wash. I'm always hopeful that we are not clogging the drains with clay.

I actually ended up with some room. I don't have anything dry enough to add so this is it for the load.

Elvis is talking to KISS.

The two girls are hanging out.

Now they fire. I do a 10 hour pre-heat in the winter to insure they are moisture free. Then a slow ramp of 13.5 hours so that the temperature raises slowly and if there is a speck of moisture it will be removed. If any remains and boils it will explode the sculpture and then I'd have to start over.

Wow it's 2016 and we are off to a good start. How's this for a catch up? Cheers and Happy New Years from Wendy and Dan